Child mortality rate drops by 73pc in 25yrs: UNICEF

Health Desk-- Dec 26, 2017: Bangladesh has brought down the child mortality rate by 73 percent over the last 25 years, according to a Unicef report.

Nearly half of all under-five deaths are associated with malnutrition. Over the past 25 years, the world has made a significant progress in saving children's lives. The rate of child mortality fell 62 percent from 1990-2016, with under-five deaths dropping from 12.7 million to 5.6 million.

The Unicef report highlights that a child's chance of survival still depends vastly on where he or she is born. Hence, the UN body in 2016 estimated 32.9 deaths per 1,000 live births globally, which was updated in July, 2017.

Most of these deaths are entirely preventable. Prematurity, complications during labor and birth, and infections like sepsis, pneumonia, tetanus and diarrhea are among the leading causes, which can be treated or prevented with simple, affordable solutions.

Bangladesh has experienced a significant reduction of child mortality over the past decades. But the mortality among the under-5 children must be further reduced for a substantial effort to achieve the SDG target.

According to WHO, a substantial global progress has been made in reducing child deaths. Bangladesh has also registered a substantive acceleration, experiencing a remarkable change in child mortality rates over the last few decades. It has to further reduce child's death to obtain the SDGs.